Mark Townsend

Hoping to bring awareness to the conditions under which minor-league players work, and more specifically the wages they earn, which often falls below minimum wage, the United Food and Commercial Workers’ union and its allies are gathering at four different spring training games this weekend to show support and provide information to questioning fans.

United Food and Commercial Workers’ union and allies will leaflet at four major league spring training games to raise awareness among fans about the plight of minor league players who often make less than minimum wage, are often not paid at all and are not paid federal overtime wages….

At some point in the very near future every MLB and Minor League Baseball team preview that's published will feature more food and drink scouting reports than actual player scouting reports.

That's the direction we're trending, folks. Might as well jump on board now. Kind of like the Minnesota Twins did this week when they introduced the $19 "College Daze Bloody Mary," which comes garnished with a cold slice of pepperoni pizza in addition to many of the usual fixings one might be accustomed to.

The new item will be available at Hrbeks' restaurant, which is named after former Twins' first baseman and Bloomington, Minn., native Kent Hrbek. Here's a peek courtesy of Jeanie Hrbek, Kent's wife.

While Yankee Stadium awaits the return of its summer long tenants, it will occasionally play host to football, hockey and even professional soccer. On Saturday, the schedule called for a Major League Soccer matchup between the home-standing NYCFC squad — which is actually co-owned by the New York Yankees — and Sporting Kansas City.

With the stadium clear of fans and presumably only a few stadium workers on hand, three players from the Kansas City team took the field to reenact one of baseball's most famous — or infamous — scenes: the George Brett pine tar incident from July 24, 1983.

You can walk or drive past any major league stadium and figure out pretty quickly which players the corresponding team views as faces of the franchise.

The Los Angeles Angels are no exception to that rule. At the main entrance to Angel Stadium, six large banners each featuring the likeness of an Angels player welcome fans to the ballpark every day, and the message is simply: "These are our guys. Take'em or leave'em."

Seattle Mariners pitching prospect Victor Sanchez died on Saturday, six weeks after sustaining serious head injuries in a boating accident in his home country of Venezuela. He was only 20.

According to the initial reports, Sanchez was swimming off the beach in Carapao, Venezuela on Feb. 13 when he was struck in the head by a boat propeller. Sanchez sustained a double skull fracture and a hematoma upon impact and later suffered a stroke as a result of his injuries. After undergoing emergency surgery, Sanchez went into a coma and was never able to regain consciousness.

A short time later, Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik released the following statement.

At 6-foot and 255 pounds, Sanchez was just starting to work his way into the Mariners long term plans. He finished the 2014 season ranked as their 11th best prospect according to MLB.com, a position he cemented by posting a 4.19 ERA in 23 starts for Double-A Jackson.

If you were keeping score at home back on March 12, you can probably rattle off the exact order of events and appearances made by actor Will Ferrell during his five-stadium Cactus League tour. In one day, Ferrell achieved his goal of playing 10 different positions for 10 major league teams, and in the process raised an estimated $1 million for Cancer for College and Stand Up to Cancer.

The stunt was created for the right reasons. It didn't interfere with any meaningful games or take away opportunities from upcoming players. And overall, it made for a unique baseball experience and a fun break from the usually mundane routines of spring training. It was pretty much impossible to find a reason to hate the idea or its execution, even if you might be growing tired of Ferrell's comedic stylings.

There's midseason form and then there's Mike Trout's advanced version of midseason form that only the man himself can achieve. On Saturday, we were fortunate enough to experience the latter during the Angels 5-4 loss to the Dodgers.

In one afternoon at his Arizona office in Tempe, Trout took an apparent Dodgers' home run off the board with a leaping catch at the fence, and then a few short innings he put a home run on the board with an absolute rocket to left-center field.

First, let's dicuss the robbery.

In the very first inning, Trout glided back to the deepest part of the ballpark at Tempe Diablo Stadium and then timed his leap beautifully to take away what we're fairly certain would have been a home run from Alex Guerrero. Sometimes it's difficult to tell where exactly the ball was caught in relation to the wall from the front and side camera angles, but at worst he robbed a triple because that's a long way from home plate and Guerrero has some decent speed.

In particular, the baseball that met the bat of New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez had a rough ride out of George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, but at least it had a good view.

The home run was Rodriguez's third of the spring and it was easily his most impressive.

Rodriguez was sitting first-pitch baseball and got a first-pitch fastball from Baltimore Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz, and then confirmed he still has the bat speed to square up a fastball and hit it a long ways.

As many people have described it, it was a vintage A-Rod home run that absolutely exploded off his bat, which has to be viewed as an encouraging sign for anybody with a vested interest in the Yankees.

As a baseball player, Ichiro Suzuki is simply one of the best we've seen in the past 20 years. No one could possibly deny that. As a provider of memorable quotes, however, he just might be the most underrated athlete in the entire professional sports landscape.

Lines like “If I'm in a slump, I ask myself for advice” and “I'll walk on my hands before I use crutches,” rank pretty closely with baseball's most quirky and quotable legends, such as Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel. He's a really clever guy whose sense of humor and undeniable charm translate well in any language or walk of life. He's just Ichiro, and that's always good enough for us.

That's a decision that will ultimately come down to manager Joe Girardi, with perhaps some influence from general manager Brian Cashman and others in the Yankees front office. Unfortunately, none of the above had any say over A-Rod's decision to challenge the cannon that long-time major league outfielder Jeff Francoeur possesses for a right arm during Friday's game in Clearwater.